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Here's today's feel-good story:
The speed at which the human brain can deal with issues and require rapid decision-making does not change substantially over decades, unlike what was once previously thought.
Heidelberg University psychologists have come to this conclusion, under the leadership of Dr. Mischa von Krause and Dr. Stefan Radev. They analyzed data from over a million participants for this study.
The study findings show that information processing is largely stable from ages 20 to 60, and only deteriorates at higher ages past that.
“The common assumption is that the older we get, the more slowly we react to external stimuli. If that were so, mental speed would be fastest at the age of about twenty and would then decline with increasing age,” says Dr von Krause, a researcher in the Quantitative Research Methods department headed by Prof. Dr Andreas Voß at Heidelberg University’s Institute of Psychology.